Cuts to Income = Increased Poverty

• 0.5% increase in sales tax

• Reduced training wage to $6.00 per hour

• Cuts to Income Assistance for ages 50-64 

• BC Seniors Supplement to be phased out approximately $49 per month).

• Cut welfare rates for single mothers by 18%

• Reduction in government’s contribution to the BC Family Bonus

• Women whose youngest child has turned three must find paid work

• Eliminated the Family Maintenance exemption, which allows those receiving child support payments to keep $100 per month

• Eliminated the Earnings exemption, which allowed single welfare recipients to keep earned income of $100 or those with a child or partner $200 per month

• Welfare "recipients aged 60-64 will be required to seek work or participate in employment programs"

• Over 83% of health care jobs lost were women’s and 1/3 of all jobs lost were by immigrant people or people of colour

• Ripping up of contracts freely negotiated by nearly 160,000 workers in BC which claws back employment security provisions, eliminates or reduces severance, ends successorship, eliminates wage parity, attacks health benefits which enables the government to give the work to low-wage, non-union contractor

Cuts to Health = Increased Risks

• Health Care spending frozen – government won’t cover increased health care costs due to inflation, population growth, escalating drug costs, and obligations under collective agreements. This creates a huge funding crisis for Medicare, resulting in massive cuts in services to patients, ward closures, and facility shutdowns

• Medical deductible going up, more medications de-listed

• MSP Premiums increased 50% as of April 1/02 and may go up another 60%

• Increase of $10 or $25 per prescription depending on income – everyone will pay more for their drug, but seniors will be hurt the most.

• Diabetics charged approximately $1.00 per strip (most use 2 to 4 per day)

• Home support/care for the frail elderly and disabled facing a 30% cut in 2002 - proposal that all funding eliminated in next three years.

• De-listed MSP services: eye examinations, podiatry, massage, physiotherapy, chiropractic therapy – with these cuts, British Colombians earning less that $60,0000 per year have already lost what they gained through tax cuts.

• Proposal to privatize ambulances and emergency rooms in hospitals, and close hospitals while privatizing others – privatization means worse service and less care.

• Approximately 20,000 unionized women health care workers may lose jobs or have incomes reduced 30% through privatization

• Talking Books and Hearing Aid Programs cancelled

• $360 million cut over three years to funding to Ministry of Children and Families which has meant child care subsidies have been cut, social workers cut etc.

Cuts to Housing = Homelessness

• Landlord and Tenant Offices in Vancouver and Nanaimo – closed

• Residential Tenancy Act is under review and proposed changes may eliminate Rent Review and require one month’s rent as a damage deposit

• Only those disabled people receiving “continuous” assistance will be eligible to apply for seniors housing through BC Housing

• Social housing projects frozen

• 5,000 new Long Term Care beds are needed now and some Residential Care facilities will be closed in the future

Elimination of Justice = Violation of Human Rights

• No legal representative (unless you pay for it) for a complainant at a hearing under the BC Human Rights code because of cuts to Legal Aid and the Human Rights Commission.

• Legal Aid funding gutted – a reduction of 40% over three years will specifically reduce access to justice for the poorest members of society, and immigrants and refugees, while the gutting of funding to family law will hit single mothers especially hard.

• Elimination of Crown Victim Witness Services Program – despite the Liberals’ election commitments to improve the justice system for victims of crime.

• Cuts to the Violence in Relationship Program

• Ombudsman’s Office cut by 35%

• Poverty law budget slashed – the Campbell government is virtually eliminating the funding for the area of law that helps BC’s poorest citizens resolve landlord tenant disputes, disputes with BC Benefits, the WCB, and Employment Insurance.

• Closure of Court Houses throughout the province – courthouses in 24 communities have been closed, reducing BC’s access to justice

• Closure of all 60 Legal Aid Offices in BC means no more poverty law services and legal aid for family law or only when there is violence involved 

• Elimination of Crown-based Victim Services – despite the Liberals’ election commitments to improve the justice system for victims of crime.

• Elimination of public legal education grants to community groups

• Holding a referendum on Aboriginal Treaty Rights

• Debtors’ Assistance Program eliminated – this program helped 70,000 BC families deal with debt problems each year.

• Rape Crisis counselors cut – auxiliary victim services workers who help rape and domestic violence victims have been laid off.

• Family Advocates eliminated – the Campbell government has cut those who protect the interests of children in custody cases

• Assumption that women’s unpaid work will pick up the cuts in service

Elimination of Right to Education and Training

• Tuition deregulation – ended the tuition freeze and increased tuition by 35% to 300%

• Training programs and welfare-to-work initiatives eliminated – includes: Summer Works, Skills for Employment, Job Start.

• Employment Service Centres CLOSED – office closures in Abbotsford, Maple Ridge, New Westminister and Surrey

Compiled by Benita Bunjun & Ellen Woodsworth with other social justice groups in BC